Uclan PRF
(Pedagogic Research Forum)
A Higher Education blog linked to the PRF at the University of Central Lancashire.

Friday, 22 March 2013

#badacademia

This letter appeared in the Independent. It raises several concerns about Gove's new curriculum

"We are writing to warn of the dangers posed by Michael Gove’s new National Curriculum which could severely erode educational standards. The proposed curriculum consists of endless lists of spellings, facts and rules. This mountain of data will not develop children’s ability to think, including problem-solving, critical understanding and creativity." It was also signed by over 100 academics from universities across the country many of whom are experts in education and have published multiple books and papers on education. The academics state that Gove did not take on board the advice of experts when designing his curriculum and as such is sacrificing a good education for rote learning which will severely affect educational standards.Gove's response was this was to shout at the academics for living in their ivory towers and being an example of bad academia. How ironic!

@ThomsonPat: So Gove read my 12 books 140+ peer reviewed journal articles in 2 days as well as those of my 99 colleagues? - Pat Thompson - Professor in Education

This led to @timeshighered encouraging academics to take back the term by using #badacademia on twitter to tweet about the good education that happens in spite of Gove.Some great tweets below: